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Sociology of Environment

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3. Learning How to Read Review Material – Ask Key, Critical Questions
What is this [reading] about?
Why is it important [at least to the author]?
What is the author’s conclusion?
How has the author constructed his/her arguments?
Why does the author construct his/her arguments this way?
What is missing from his/her arguments, conclusion?
I don’t expect you to read every word BUT I do expect you to know the content, arguments, conclusions of the material assigned
Some material is easier to use this approach than others

4. Review of DWW/ HEP/ NEP Return to: DWW, HEP, NEP (Catton & Dunlap)
Dominant Western World View
1. People are fundamentally different from all other creatures on earth, over which they have dominion.
2. People are the masters of their own destiny; they can choose their goals and learn to do whatever is necessary to achieve them.
3. The world is vast, and thus provides unlimited opportunities for humans.
4. The history of humanity is one of progress; for every problem there is a solution, and thus progress need never cease.

5. Review of DWW/ HEP/ NEPCont. Human Exemptionalism Paradigm
1. Humans have a cultural heritage in addition (and distinct from) their genetic inheritance and thus are quite unlike all other animals species
2. Social and cultural factors (including technology) are the major determinants of human affairs
3. Social and cultural environments are the crucial context for human affairs, and the biophysical environment is largely irrelevant.
4. Culture is cumulative; thus technological and social progress can continue indefinitely, making all social problems ultimately soluble.

6. Review of DWW/ HEP/ NEP Cont. New Ecological Paradigm
1. Even though humans have exceptional characteristics (culture, technology, etc), they are but one among many species that are interdependently involved in the global ecosystem.
2. Human affairs are influenced not only by social and cultural factors, but also by intricate linkages of cause, effect, and feedback in the web of nature; thus purposive human actions have many unintended consequences.
3. Humans live in and are dependent upon a finite biophysical environment that imposes potent physical and biological restraints on human affairs.
4. However much the inventiveness of humans or the powers derived there-from may seem for a while to transcend carrying capacity, ecological laws cannot be repealed.

9. Neo-Marxism Cont. Other Neo-Marixist Theories
The 2nd Contradiction of Capitalism (James O’Connor)
1st Contradiction – Demand side of Profits from Inequities
2nd Contradiction – Destruction of the natural resource base upon which economic production depends

10. Neo-Marxism Cont. Other Neo-Marxist Theories Cont.
The Theory of Metabolic Rift (J.B.Foster from Marx)
“Robbing the Soil as well as Labor”
Separation of agricultural village and city
Soil fertility and urban/ industrial growth
The Role of the State in Neo-Marxist Views of Environment?

11. Contemporary Theories Cont. Treadmill of Production [TOP]
Reading: Schaiberg et al. “Treadmill of Production”
Large Body of Works – Schnaiberg and a fine cadre of students
Two Types of Treadmills
Ecological Treadmill
Social Treadmill

12. Treadmill of Production Cont.
The Role of the Environmental State (Government)
Under TOP – What is the role of the State?
Other readings – “Societal-Environmental Dialectic”
Economic Growth Thesis
Managed Planned Scarcity Antithesis (Rise of Environmental Policies)
Dialectic without Synthesis
Is TOP – Conservative, Managerial or Radical?

20. Contemporary Theories Cont. Postmaterialist Values Thesis
Work of Ronald Inglehart (1977, 1990)
Explanation for the Social Revolution of the 1960s in Western Industrialized Countries
Built on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs [see next slide]
Mannheim’s Theory of Generations [cohort effect]
The New Social Values of New Social Movements
Values based increasingly on Political Stability & Economic Abundance